Screenwriting – Filmmaker Magazinehttp://filmmakermagazine.com
Publication with a focus on independent film, offering articles, links, and resources.Thu, 17 Aug 2017 22:09:40 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.1Five Questions for Miss Stevens Writer/Director Julia Harthttp://filmmakermagazine.com/99981-five-questions-for-miss-stevens-writerdirector-julia-hart/
http://filmmakermagazine.com/99981-five-questions-for-miss-stevens-writerdirector-julia-hart/#commentsTue, 27 Sep 2016 19:37:00 +0000http://filmmakermagazine.com/?p=99981We’ve seen our fair share of films about teacher-student relationships, but they tend to fall into either the titillating or inspirational categories. Miss Stevens is neither. It’s a quiet drama which is powerful in its subtlety. The plot itself is understated, but the execution is surprisingly compelling. The set-up involves Rachel Stevens (Lily Rabe), a lonely high school teacher who reluctantly chaperones three teens – including the troubled and charismatic Billy (Timothee Chalamet) – to a drama competition. In her directorial debut, Julia Hart, who co-wrote the film with her husband Jordan Horowitz, exhibits an aptitude for working with actors. Rabe won the Best Actress […]]]>http://filmmakermagazine.com/99981-five-questions-for-miss-stevens-writerdirector-julia-hart/feed/1Les Cowboys Writer/Director Thomas Bidegain on Contemporary Westerns, His Journey to Directing, and the Importance of the “B-Book”http://filmmakermagazine.com/98951-les-cowboys-writerdirector-thomas-bidegain-contemporary-westerns-his-journey-to-directing-and-the-importance-of-the-b-book/
http://filmmakermagazine.com/98951-les-cowboys-writerdirector-thomas-bidegain-contemporary-westerns-his-journey-to-directing-and-the-importance-of-the-b-book/#respondTue, 05 Jul 2016 14:00:27 +0000http://filmmakermagazine.com/?p=98951In theaters now from Cohen Media, Les Cowboys is the directorial debut of acclaimed French screenwriter Thomas Bidegain, best known in recent years for his collaborations with French director Jacques Audiard. (He has co-scripted all of Audiard’s films following The Beat My Heart Skipped.) In an age when the value of the cinematic medium is being challenged, Bidegain has made a haunting and bold first feature that is both intimate as well as epic in scope. It’s a film steeped in the history of cinema, drawing both visual and narrative inspiration from classic American westerns. At the same time, Les […]]]>http://filmmakermagazine.com/98951-les-cowboys-writerdirector-thomas-bidegain-contemporary-westerns-his-journey-to-directing-and-the-importance-of-the-b-book/feed/0“Let Me Work it Out”: Four Takeaways from Veep Writer Alexis Wilkinson on She Does Podcasthttp://filmmakermagazine.com/97368-let-me-work-it-out-four-takeaways-from-veep-writer-alexis-wilkinson-on-she-does-podcast/
http://filmmakermagazine.com/97368-let-me-work-it-out-four-takeaways-from-veep-writer-alexis-wilkinson-on-she-does-podcast/#respondFri, 12 Feb 2016 20:17:52 +0000http://filmmakermagazine.com/?p=97368Alexis Wilkinson went from being the first black woman President of Harvard’s acclaimed humor publication, The Lampoon, to writing for HBO’s hit comedy series, Veep. She’s become an outspoken public figure and writer–with work featured in Slate, Opening Ceremony and TIME–but as we know, big victories such as these don’t come without a lot of work, a few disruptions and some twists and turns in the road. In this episode of She Does podcast, Alexis recalls her experiences of “comping” or trying out for The Lampoon multiple times, finding her place in the middle of an elitist institution, losing her […]]]>http://filmmakermagazine.com/97368-let-me-work-it-out-four-takeaways-from-veep-writer-alexis-wilkinson-on-she-does-podcast/feed/0The Studios “Are Wanting a Strong Female Perspective”: Pamela Ribon Talks Novel and Television Writing on She Does Podcasthttp://filmmakermagazine.com/95354-the-studios-are-wanting-a-strong-female-perspective-pamela-ribon-talks-novel-and-television-writing-on-she-does-podcast/
http://filmmakermagazine.com/95354-the-studios-are-wanting-a-strong-female-perspective-pamela-ribon-talks-novel-and-television-writing-on-she-does-podcast/#respondWed, 26 Aug 2015 14:56:02 +0000http://filmmakermagazine.com/?p=95354Pamela Ribon is a television writer, screenwriter, best-selling novelist and all around hilarious human. She’s been a writer in comedy rooms for both network and cable television and is the author of four novels. NPR called her new memoir, Notes to Boys, “brain-breakingly funny.” Ribon has developed original series and features for ABC, ABC Family, Warner Bros., Disney Channel and 20th Century Fox Productions. She recently finished working on a feature for Walt Disney Animation Studios, and she’s currently writing for Sony Pictures Animation on an upcoming feature. Ribon started writing on the web in 1998, before most people even […]]]>http://filmmakermagazine.com/95354-the-studios-are-wanting-a-strong-female-perspective-pamela-ribon-talks-novel-and-television-writing-on-she-does-podcast/feed/0A Reader Asks, “How Do I Find A Director for my Screenplay?”http://filmmakermagazine.com/95369-a-reader-asks-how-do-i-find-a-director-for-my-screenplay/
http://filmmakermagazine.com/95369-a-reader-asks-how-do-i-find-a-director-for-my-screenplay/#commentsTue, 25 Aug 2015 14:00:00 +0000http://filmmakermagazine.com/?p=95369We’re always happy to receive questions here at Filmmaker about filmmaking itself. One such question inspired one of our most-read posts, “15 Things to Do After You Finish Your Script,” and now a reader of that blog post has written in with a logical next question: How do you find a director for your screenplay?” Below, my response and, as I like to do, further comments from someone who might have more experience than me — in this case, screenwriter and Filmmaker reader (and writer), Marc Maurino. First, here’s the reader letter: Hello Scott: I’ve just read and thoroughly enjoyed […]]]>http://filmmakermagazine.com/95369-a-reader-asks-how-do-i-find-a-director-for-my-screenplay/feed/2Advocating for a Character-Driven Screenplay Structurehttp://filmmakermagazine.com/95198-on-a-character-driven-screenplay-structure/
http://filmmakermagazine.com/95198-on-a-character-driven-screenplay-structure/#commentsTue, 11 Aug 2015 14:00:33 +0000http://filmmakermagazine.com/?p=95198Once upon a time, a long time ago, I was considering the possibility that there might be more to screen drama than external conflict-driven plotting when, as if hit by a thunderbolt, a new paradigm of story structure downloaded onto the page in front of me. I had been teaching script analysis, a lecture class analyzing the dramatic structure of successful films, for a few years by then, and it had led me to notice ways that character elements were able to move stories forward. They were not simply providing an added layer of human interest. They were serving a […]]]>http://filmmakermagazine.com/95198-on-a-character-driven-screenplay-structure/feed/3Understanding Copyright Law: Pitches, Facts, Characters and the Ambiguities of Section 102http://filmmakermagazine.com/94548-understanding-copyright-law-pitches-facts-characters-and-the-ambiguities-of-section-102/
http://filmmakermagazine.com/94548-understanding-copyright-law-pitches-facts-characters-and-the-ambiguities-of-section-102/#commentsWed, 10 Jun 2015 16:07:59 +0000http://filmmakermagazine.com/?p=94548Gregory Bernstein’s book Understanding the Business of Entertainment, the Legal and Business Essentials All Filmmakers Should Know, published this week, discusses such important topics for filmmakers as copyright law, First Amendment law, the FCC, the growth of media conglomerates, studio development and distribution, entertainment contracts, as well as a section for independent filmmakers. The following excerpt comes from the chapter about copyright law. Among many other things, the chapter discusses how story ideas cannot be copyrighted. The excerpt below, however, discusses one way filmmakers and other creative people can nevertheless protect ideas from being stolen, and whether facts, characters and titles may be copyrighted. Protecting Ideas via Contract Law Say […]]]>http://filmmakermagazine.com/94548-understanding-copyright-law-pitches-facts-characters-and-the-ambiguities-of-section-102/feed/1“We’re A Lost Generation That’s Still Alive”: NYWIFT and IRIS Directors on The Writers Labhttp://filmmakermagazine.com/93990-were-a-lost-generation-thats-still-alive-nywift-and-iris-directors-on-the-writers-lab/
http://filmmakermagazine.com/93990-were-a-lost-generation-thats-still-alive-nywift-and-iris-directors-on-the-writers-lab/#commentsMon, 27 Apr 2015 18:15:20 +0000http://filmmakermagazine.com/?p=93990Meryl Streep was making waves as usual when it was announced during the Tribeca Film Festival that she had come aboard to fund a new initiative from New York Women in Film and Television and the IRIS collective. Called The Writers Lab, the inaugural retreat will take place in upstate New York in September at the Wiawaka Center for Women, and pair eight women screenwriters over the age of 40 with established mentors including Gina Prince-Bythewood, Kirsten Smith, and Mary Jane Skalski. Filmmaker spoke with Terry Lawler, Executive Director of NYWIFT, and IRIS co-founders, Kyle Ann Stokes, Elizabeth Kaiden and Nitza Wilon, to […]]]>http://filmmakermagazine.com/93990-were-a-lost-generation-thats-still-alive-nywift-and-iris-directors-on-the-writers-lab/feed/5Save the Baby! On the Benefits of the Three-Act Screenplay Structurehttp://filmmakermagazine.com/88320-save-the-baby-on-the-benefits-of-the-three-act-screenplay-structure/
http://filmmakermagazine.com/88320-save-the-baby-on-the-benefits-of-the-three-act-screenplay-structure/#commentsWed, 19 Nov 2014 12:00:19 +0000http://filmmakermagazine.com/?p=88320Poor old three-act structure. It gets hammered away at, like an old punching bag, every time someone wants to challenge the primacy of the formulaic Hollywood screenwriting methods. “Take that! You follow-the-dots, color-within-the-lines, stodgy old armature!” Poor, poor three-act structure. So much to offer. So misunderstood. What if I were to tell you that in the 2,500-year history of Western dramatic literature, three-act structure is actually a radical new innovation? What would you think if I also said that its radical impact, towards the end of the 19th century, was to finally free dramatists from a highly proscriptive, closely dictated […]]]>http://filmmakermagazine.com/88320-save-the-baby-on-the-benefits-of-the-three-act-screenplay-structure/feed/3Forever Ally: Adapting Poetry to the Screenhttp://filmmakermagazine.com/87652-forever-ally-adapting-poetry-to-the-screen/
http://filmmakermagazine.com/87652-forever-ally-adapting-poetry-to-the-screen/#respondThu, 25 Sep 2014 17:34:05 +0000http://filmmakermagazine.com/?p=87652Currently featured on Filmmaker‘s curated Kickstarter page is Forever Ally, a short film by Iyabo Boyd. In this guest post, she writes about her process adapting a work of poetry she discovered one night at a reading. Check out her campaign and consider donating; it ends October 2. Forever Ally follows exchanges between a gay black man named Ronaldo and his recently deceased cat named Ally. Told primarily through lyrical missives between heaven, earth, and Ronaldo’s cat-scratched sofa, the story and characters are unique, offering a nuanced, complex, and genuine approach to ruminations on death, friendship, and opening oneself up […]]]>http://filmmakermagazine.com/87652-forever-ally-adapting-poetry-to-the-screen/feed/0James Franco, Vince Jolivette Launch Online Screenwriting Classhttp://filmmakermagazine.com/86312-james-franco-vince-jolivette-launch-online-screenwriting-class/
http://filmmakermagazine.com/86312-james-franco-vince-jolivette-launch-online-screenwriting-class/#respondWed, 11 Jun 2014 22:02:07 +0000http://filmmakermagazine.com/?p=86312Continuing to disprove the assertion that there are 24 hours in a day, prodigious multi-hyphenate James Franco, who has taught at USC, UCLA, CalArts and NYU, and his Rabbit Bandini producing partner Vince Jolivette are launching another new venture: an online course, “Introduction to Screenwriting for Short Films,” on the Skillshare site. Over 30 short video lessons beginning screenwriters will learn the craft by penning an eight-page adaptation of one of three texts: John Steinbeck’s Pastures of Heaven, a story from The Spoon River Anthology, or Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small-Town Life. Right now […]]]>http://filmmakermagazine.com/86312-james-franco-vince-jolivette-launch-online-screenwriting-class/feed/0On Finding New Screenplay Structures for Independent Filmshttp://filmmakermagazine.com/86203-on-finding-new-screenplay-structures-for-independent-films/
http://filmmakermagazine.com/86203-on-finding-new-screenplay-structures-for-independent-films/#commentsMon, 02 Jun 2014 14:00:17 +0000http://filmmakermagazine.com/?p=86203The below is a guest essay by Jennine Lanouette, Founder and Chief Content Creator at Screentakes Digital Publishing, who is currently in the midst of a Kickstarter campaign for a line of media rich screenplay analysis ebooks. Lanouette has taught screenwriting and lectured on story structure and script analysis for over 20 years, and much of her wisdom can be found at her site. The new ebooks use text, video and interactive graphics to provide a new dimension to screenplay study. For more details, and to donate to the campign, visit its Kickstarter page. — SM It often seems to […]]]>http://filmmakermagazine.com/86203-on-finding-new-screenplay-structures-for-independent-films/feed/19The Independent Screenwriter: Jon Raymondhttp://filmmakermagazine.com/71594-the-independent-screenwriter-jon-raymond/
http://filmmakermagazine.com/71594-the-independent-screenwriter-jon-raymond/#commentsSat, 31 May 2014 16:33:47 +0000http://filmmakermagazine.com/?p=71594Portland-based Jon Raymond has four screenplay credits, all in the last decade, to his name, but his iMDB page only tells half the story. Raymond began his career and is still well known as a writer of novels and literary short fiction, and his film career has come not from the usual Black-Listed spec script but from adaptations of his work co-authored by a director/collaborator/friend, Kelly Reichardt. Two stories from his short story collection Livability, “Old Joy” and “Train Choir,” became Reichardt films (Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy, respectively), with the two co-authoring their scripts. That work, and the […]]]>http://filmmakermagazine.com/71594-the-independent-screenwriter-jon-raymond/feed/1Life of the Mind: An Interview with Screenwriter Cliff Dorfmanhttp://filmmakermagazine.com/85175-life-of-the-mind-an-interview-with-screenwriter-cliff-dorfman/
http://filmmakermagazine.com/85175-life-of-the-mind-an-interview-with-screenwriter-cliff-dorfman/#respondFri, 11 Apr 2014 15:58:43 +0000http://filmmakermagazine.com/?p=85175A bit player since 1993, Cliff Dorfman was instantly drawn to the movie business. “I started out scamming my way into whatever premieres were happening in NYC however I could,” he said. “I just wanted to be around it and absorb it. That attitude blossomed into connections that valued my work, which ultimately led to Entourage.” As we sat down for coffee, Cliff talked candidly about his journey and the writing process. After transitioning from acting to writing on HBO’s hit show, Cliff picked up a nomination from the Writers Guild of America and finally found his calling. “Thought I […]]]>http://filmmakermagazine.com/85175-life-of-the-mind-an-interview-with-screenwriter-cliff-dorfman/feed/0Lost in Translation: Public Hearinghttp://filmmakermagazine.com/84869-lost-in-translation-public-hearing/
http://filmmakermagazine.com/84869-lost-in-translation-public-hearing/#respondFri, 07 Mar 2014 19:00:59 +0000http://filmmakermagazine.com/?p=84869If you want to make a movie, you need a good script. Or, at least that’s what they tell you. A script gets the talent, which gets the financing (the two are really synonymous). The other thing you’ll need, of course, is luck. First-time filmmaker James N. Kienitz Wilkins can thank Google for both (not the money part though). While cruising the Internet in 2007, Wilkins came across a transcript of a public hearing on a town hall website. It described in detail a well-attended public hearing in Allegany, New York, population 8,000. At issue was a proposal to replace […]]]>http://filmmakermagazine.com/84869-lost-in-translation-public-hearing/feed/0How Filmmaker Magazine Helped Me Launch My First Feature, the SXSW-Bound The Heart Machinehttp://filmmakermagazine.com/84374-how-filmmaker-magazine-helped-me-launch-my-first-feature-the-sxsw-bound-the-heart-machine/
http://filmmakermagazine.com/84374-how-filmmaker-magazine-helped-me-launch-my-first-feature-the-sxsw-bound-the-heart-machine/#respondWed, 12 Feb 2014 14:00:45 +0000http://filmmakermagazine.com/?p=84374Zach Wigon has written a number of provocative, discursive and highly original film essays for Filmmaker over the last couple of years, and now he is making his first feature. In this guest essay, appearing alongside the SXSW-bound film’s Kickstarter campaign, he describes how the interests explored in these pieces dovetailed into a seductive thriller for the NSA age, The Heart Machine. After reading, check out some of Zach’s old pieces for us and consider contributing to his campaign. — SM It all started with Filmmaker Magazine. In the Fall of 2010, I received an email from a producer […]]]>http://filmmakermagazine.com/84374-how-filmmaker-magazine-helped-me-launch-my-first-feature-the-sxsw-bound-the-heart-machine/feed/0John August Launches iPhone Screenplay Reader, Weekend Readhttp://filmmakermagazine.com/84404-john-august-launches-iphone-screenplay-reader-weekend-read/
http://filmmakermagazine.com/84404-john-august-launches-iphone-screenplay-reader-weekend-read/#commentsWed, 12 Feb 2014 13:24:21 +0000http://filmmakermagazine.com/?p=84404Screenwriter and director John August and his colleagues at Quote-Unquote Apps have launched Weekend Read, a full-featured screenplay reader for the iPhone. The app imports scripts in Final Draft, PDF, Fountain, Markdown and text formats and then creates an “optimized view” that’s perfectly sized for the iPhone’s 4″ screen. Fonts can be increased, decreased or changed; there’s a “night mode”; and scripts can be imported from Dropbox, a URL, email or any app that has an “Open in” option. I read screenplays on my iPad using Goodreader to narrow the margins and thus increase the font size. It’s a decent […]]]>http://filmmakermagazine.com/84404-john-august-launches-iphone-screenplay-reader-weekend-read/feed/2Interview with Love is Strange Screenwriter Mauricio Zachariashttp://filmmakermagazine.com/83830-interview-with-love-is-strange-screenwriter-mauricio-zacharias/
http://filmmakermagazine.com/83830-interview-with-love-is-strange-screenwriter-mauricio-zacharias/#commentsMon, 20 Jan 2014 21:54:27 +0000http://filmmakermagazine.com/?p=83830Mauricio Zacharias is currently in Park City for the premiere of his latest film, Love is Strange, directed by Ira Sachs. The previous project the director and writer collaborated on, the erotic and turbulent love story Keep the Lights On, also premiered at Sundance back in 2012. Love is Strange tells the story of Ben (John Lithgow) and George (Alfred Molina), a couple who’ve been together for 39 years who finally tie the knot in New York City. As soon as George’s employer, a Catholic school, hears the news of the gay marriage he is fired from his longtime job. Unable to afford the […]]]>http://filmmakermagazine.com/83830-interview-with-love-is-strange-screenwriter-mauricio-zacharias/feed/1Amazon Launches Free Storyboarder Toolhttp://filmmakermagazine.com/83383-amazon-launches-free-storyboarder-tool/
http://filmmakermagazine.com/83383-amazon-launches-free-storyboarder-tool/#commentsMon, 13 Jan 2014 14:00:12 +0000http://filmmakermagazine.com/?p=83383Amazon continues its adventures in moviemaking. Amazon Studios, which began as an effort in crowdsourced content is moving towards content produced by professionals, but they still seem to be interested in moviemaking by the masses. They’ve already released a free storyboarding tool, and now they have Amazon Storyboarder, a tool for outlining stories using a corkboard metaphor. It’s free – you just need to create an Amazon Studios account – and it’s reasonably full-featured; you can add cards and move them around, and you can even share your projects with others and get their input. While the formatting of cards […]]]>http://filmmakermagazine.com/83383-amazon-launches-free-storyboarder-tool/feed/5Revising Your Script: The Evolution of Even The Dogs Knowhttp://filmmakermagazine.com/82875-revising-your-script-the-evolution-of-even-the-dogs-know/
http://filmmakermagazine.com/82875-revising-your-script-the-evolution-of-even-the-dogs-know/#respondMon, 16 Dec 2013 16:00:21 +0000http://filmmakermagazine.com/?p=82875Michael Capodiferro, a student at Hampshire College, has written the script for Even The Dogs Know and is planning to direct the short film as his senior project. The film is about the lengths someone will go to find someone to talk to. In a description of the project Capodiferro briefly outlined the process of developing the script: The script work for Even The Dogs Know began almost a year ago in January. It was a much darker, in-your-face, louder story than it is now. It’s taken me many drafts to build up the story and tear it down again and […]]]>http://filmmakermagazine.com/82875-revising-your-script-the-evolution-of-even-the-dogs-know/feed/0